POLITICS: CONSTITUENCIES;Rifle Group Threatens to Withhold Endorsement of Dole

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Furious that Bob Dole has backed off his opposition to a ban on assault weapons, officials of the National Rifle Association threatened today to withhold the organization's endorsement of his Presidential campaign.

Tanya Metaksa, the group's chief Washington lobbyist, said she had received hundreds, probably thousands, of telephone calls, letters and faxes from members who felt betrayed by Mr. Dole's remarks, particularly his warning that, as President, he might veto a repeal of the assault-weapons ban enacted two years ago.

What he's done is turned off N.R.A. members from being active campaign workers in his election," Ms. Metaksa said in an interview. "N.R.A. members don't just vote; they are campaigners, they walk precincts, they make phone calls, they stuff envelopes."

While Ms. Metaksa said the group's board would not vote on an endorsement until September, she made clear it was highly unlikely Mr. Dole would get an endorsement.

"Members will be active in state and local legislative elections," she said, "but I doubt they'll be active in the Presidential election. President Clinton is the most anti-gun President to ever occupy the White House. But our members are very disappointed and disillusioned with last week's statements of Senator Dole."

The group caused a stir four years ago when it refused to endorse President George Bush for re-election because he had not vigorously opposed the Brady bill to impose a five-day waiting period to buy a handgun. The group, which claims three million members, backed Mr. Bush in 1988.

Ms. Metaksa said: "I'm not sure Dole wants the endorsement. In my way of looking at things, I think Dole has decided that he doesn't need it."

The association's warnings of course, could be a strategy to win concessions from Mr. Dole. Or Mr. Dole may have decided he is better off without the endorsement of a group whose forceful advocacy for gun-owners stirs such controversy.

As Mr. Dole has refined and adjusted his position on guns in the past year, his campaign has tried at times both to win over the N.R.A. and at times to win over voters who favor controls on guns. As Senate majority leader, Mr. Dole told the N.R.A. last year that repealing the "ill-conceived" ban was one of his top priorities. The ban on the manufacture and importing of 19 kinds of assault weapons was a provision of 1994 anti-crime legislation.

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In oblique remarks last week, Mr. Dole backed off his opposition to the ban. His advisers explained his comments later, saying they were intentionally vague because Speaker Newt Gingrich urged him to be careful not to cause political damage to the nearly 200 House members who voted to repeal the gun ban. After those remarks, Ms. Metaksa denied that Mr. Dole had reversed his position -- and the matter seemed to have been put to rest.

But Ms. Metaksa, whose comments were echoed by others at the organization, said today that Mr. Dole reopened the controversy in his subsequent comments, particularly in an interview with CBS News that was broadcast on Friday. Asked if as President he would veto an effort to repeal the ban on assault weapons, Mr. Dole told CBS: "If it came to me, repeal came to me, I wouldn't sign it. I'd probably veto it, too."

It was unclear whether Mr. Dole's comments were a deliberate effort to pick a fight with the N.R.A. and distance himself from rifle owners in a play for swing voters in November. His campaign has been making an aggressive push to win over women who have abandoned the Republicans and to whom the gun issue is very important. But the Dole campaign has also been counting on the loyal and active support of gun owners, who have long been a crucial Republican constituency.

Asked about the concerns among N.R.A. members, Scott Reed, Mr. Dole's campaign manager, said in an interview: "Bob Dole has a long history of supporting Second Amendment rights and, as he said last week, we have to move beyond this debate on assault weapons to instant checks, which will keep the guns out of the hands of those who should not have them." He declined to comment on whether the Dole campaign would be better off with an endorsement.

Douglas Sosnik, the White House political director, said Mr. Dole's gun record would be an issue no matter what. Mr. Sosnik said of Mr. Dole, "He's already on record having led the fight for the N.R.A. on opposing the Brady bill, opposing the assault weapons ban, opposing the ban against cop-killer bullets."

Ms. Metaksa made public a letter she received recently from John B. Snyder 2d of Oconomowoc, Wis., an N.R.A. member and longtime contributor to Republicans, which she said was typical.

"Apparently, Senator Dole has made this about face in the hope of resuscitating his moribund Presidential campaign," Mr. Snyder wrote. "I cannot say if Senator Dole's attempt to be on both sides of the gun issue will meet with political success, but I can state that that his actions have caused me to terminate any support for his candidacy."

A version of this article appears in print on July 18, 1996, on Page D00022 of the National edition with the headline: POLITICS: CONSTITUENCIES;Rifle Group Threatens to Withhold Endorsement of Dole. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe